By Ashley Fetters Dec. 17, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
Two weeks into quarantining during the coronavirus pandemic, it dawned on 31-year-old Stephen Miller that it was time.
Living with his girlfriend of three years, Joanna Illing, at their apartment in San Francisco was going better than he expected — spending so much time together felt like a treat, not a chore — and a journaling project he’d begun as a staying-sane activity revealed something he hadn’t foreseen. Miller, the vice president of engineering at a tech start-up, had been writing about his most meaningful experiences before the pandemic.
“Travel; past relationships that didn’t work out; big, grand moments in my life,” he said. “It started to feel like all of those big memories that had seemed so monumental weren’t that exciting to write about anymore. I kind of felt like I was turning a corner, where I realized that my life today is so much happier.”
Miller wanted to surprise Illing, 29, with a proposal but didn’t want to buy a ring without her input. So he typed “costume diamond ring” into a search engine and ordered three sizes. He chose the one that looked like it would fit Illing’s finger — gold plastic with a fake diamond in a halo setting. And on the evening of April 25, Miller had their neighbor’s 11-year-old Maltipoo, who the couple sometimes dog-sits, trot into their apartment with the ring in a bag around its neck. (A few weeks later they ordered Illing’s real ring, an oval diamond with baguette side stones.)
Half a century from now, in 2071 or 2072, Americans may find themselves fielding a flurry of invitations to grandparents’ and grand-relatives’ 50th wedding anniversary parties. Another pandemic engagement, invitees might say as they click to open another lavishly rendered hologram notification, or whatever the fancy correspondence du jour may be. Another marriage spurred into existence all those years ago by the great coronavirus outbreak of 2020, forged in the long months of either sheltering in place together or pining for each other while quarantining apart.
Although annual statistics for engagements are virtually nonexistent, there’s evidence to suggest the coronavirus pandemic has produced a bumper crop. At the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most popular proposal spots, inquiries about proposal packages and bookings have doubled since last year, according to a representative for Grand Canyon Wedding Packages. Jamie L. Singleton, the president of the Kay, Zales and Peoples jewelry retailers, said that in the third quarter of the year, the three brands saw “double-digit” percentage growth in engagement-ring sales as compared to the same period in 2019. She expects the traditional “engagement season” — between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31, when Singleton said one-half of annual proposals usually take place — will also bring bigger sales than usual. “What we’re learning is that the people that we quarantine with, for the most part, have become the nucleuses of [our] lives,” she said.
Read more: Marriage proposals are thriving during the pandemic – The Washington Post